Who really said it

There are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened

Q: Did Casey Stengel say "There are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened"?

No. There is no evidence the Yankees manager ever said this. Quote Investigator traces the idea to Columbia University president Nicholas Murray Butler, who told a University of California Charter Day audience in March 1931 that the world divides into "the few who make things happen, the many more who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens." The snappier third clause — "those who wonder what happened" — is a later, anonymous reworking that only surfaces decades on.

Not Casey Stengel — actually Nicholas Murray Butler (and not in these words) Nicholas Murray Butler 1862–1947 · President of Columbia University & 1931 Nobel Peace laureate

Disputed Rights unconfirmed

There is no evidence the Yankees manager ever said this. Quote Investigator traces the idea to Columbia University president Nicholas Murray Butler, who told a University of California Charter Day audience in March 1931 that the world divides into “the few who make things happen, the many more who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens.” The snappier third clause — “those who wonder what happened” — is a later, anonymous reworking that only surfaces decades on.

Last verified 22 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“There are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened” Nicholas Murray Butler, Charter Day address, University of California, Berkeley, March 1931. The popular "those who wonder what happened" version is a later anonymous rewrite; it is not Casey Stengel's. Via Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Casey Stengel. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Nicholas Murray Butler — President of Columbia University, 1902–1945 · Nobel Peace Prize 1931. Theme: "There are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "There are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The earliest documented wording

Speaker: Nicholas Murray Butler (1862–1947)
Occasion: Charter Day address, University of California, Berkeley
Date: March 1931 (Popik dates it 23 March; reprinted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 29 March 1931)
Popular wording: Anonymous later rewrite, in print by 1958; credited to John W. Newbern from 1971

The vast population of this earth, and indeed nations themselves, may readily be divided into three groups. There are the few who make things happen, the many more who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens. 1931 address

This is Butler’s wording as reprinted in 1931 and quoted by Quote Investigator. Note the third clause: no notion of what happens, not “wonder what happened.”

Quote Investigator: full chronology from 1931 to today

How the line travelled

March 1931 — the origin. Butler tells a University of California Charter Day audience that the world divides into those who make things happen, those who watch, and an overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens; the speech is reprinted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that month, per Quote Investigator ↗.
1931–1958 — it comes loose. A Fort Lauderdale paper runs it unattributed in June 1931; a Dayton paper credits Butler in July; by 1956 it is in a speakers’ handbook and in 1958 columnist Earl Wilson prints it anonymously — chronology from Quote Investigator ↗.
1971–1979 — new names attach. The modern ending is already in print by 1958, when Earl Wilson runs it anonymously as “those who wonder what happened”; by December 1971 the reworded saying is being printed under John W. Newbern’s name, per Barry Popik ↗; Tommy Lasorda publishes a baseball version in 1979.
Today — Stengel’s turn. Casey Stengel appears only on the list of people wrongly credited, and the quote is absent from his Wikiquote page ↗.

No rights status can honestly be asserted for the popular wording: “those who wonder what happened” is an anonymous later rewrite with no identified author. Butler’s original 1931 address is a separate matter and falls just after the pre-1931 US public-domain cutoff, so it should not be treated as public domain in 2026.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

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Fact-check

Everyone has been credited with this

This is one of the most heavily misattributed sayings in circulation. Quote Investigator’s acknowledgements alone list seven claimants — and Casey Stengel is one of them.

Casey Stengel No evidence

No documented Stengel utterance of this line exists. Quote Investigator names him only in a list of people who have wrongly received credit, and Wikiquote’s Casey Stengel page ↗ does not carry the quote at all. He is a classic quote magnet: a famously funny manager who attracts orphaned one-liners.

Tommy Lasorda Repeater

In 1979 the Dodgers manager published a baseball-tailored version in a newspaper piece, per Quote Investigator ↗. A baseball manager using it plausibly explains how it later slid onto another baseball manager.

John W. Newbern Later credit

By December 1971 the saying was being printed under Newbern’s name, per Barry Popik ↗. John Peers’ 1979 compilation 1,001 Logical Laws then presented it as “John Newbern’s Law,” per Quote Investigator ↗. The reworded ending was already in print anonymously by 1958, so Newbern’s name landed on a saying that had drifted long before.

Mary Kay Ash, Jim Lovell, Robert T. Kiyosaki, Steve Backley, Carroll Bryant Also credited

All five appear in the roster of people who have received credit for the saying, per Quote Investigator ↗. None is the originator.

The earliest known instance is Nicholas Murray Butler’s Charter Day address at the University of California in March 1931 — and his third group did not wonder what happened, they had no notion of what happens. See Quote Investigator ↗.

Context

How a university president’s line became a baseball manager’s

Butler’s original is a sociological observation with a sting in the tail: most people, he said, have no notion of what happens at all. That is bleaker and more interesting than the modern version. The rewrite — “those who wonder what happened” — converts an indictment into a punchline, which is precisely why it travels better.

Quote Investigator shows the saying drifting loose almost immediately: unattributed in a Florida paper within months, credited back to Butler in Ohio, then floating anonymously through speakers’ handbooks and newspaper columns for decades. By 1979 Tommy Lasorda was using a baseball-flavoured version and a book of ‘laws’ had pinned it on one John W. Newbern. Once a line is in the sports-quip bloodstream, attaching it to Casey Stengel is almost automatic.

Butler said most people have no notion of what happens. The internet made them merely puzzled.

Read the full story

Barry Popik’s file records the Newbern credit explicitly: by December 1971 the saying was appearing under John W. Newbern’s name in the reworded form — “those who wonder what happened” in place of Butler’s “who have no notion of what happens” — a wording Earl Wilson had already printed anonymously in 1958.

Quote Investigator’s acknowledgements list the names the saying has collected over the years: Steve Backley, Mary Kay Ash, Jim Lovell, Robert T. Kiyosaki, Carroll Bryant, Casey Stengel and John W. Newbern.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Leadership Purpose Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Origin: There Are Three Types of People…quoteinvestigator.com

The definitive investigation: earliest 1931 Butler attestation, the 1958 anonymous version, Lasorda 1979, the Newbern misattribution, and the list of names the saying has collected — including Casey Stengel.

“Those who make things happen…” (The Big Apple)barrypopik.com

Barry Popik’s citation file, dating Butler’s Berkeley address to 23 March 1931 and tracking the 1971 shift to the “wonder what happened” wording under Newbern’s name.

Nicholas Murray Butleren.wikipedia.org

Biography of the true originator: Columbia’s president 1902–1945 and co-recipient of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.

Casey Stengel (Wikiquote)en.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote’s Stengel page — useful as a negative check: the “three types of people” line appears nowhere on it.

Nicholas Murray Butler (Wikiquote)en.wikiquote.org

Butler’s collected quotations; notably this saying is not yet listed there either, which is part of why it drifts.

The man who actually said it

Who was Nicholas Murray Butler?

Nicholas Murray Butler

1862–1947 · President of Columbia University, 1902–1945 · Nobel Peace Prize 1931

Nicholas Murray Butler ran Columbia University for forty-three years, from 1902 to 1945 — the longest presidency in its history — and was one of the most quoted public men in America in the era between the wars. In 1931, the same year he delivered the Berkeley Charter Day address that produced this line, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Jane Addams for his work behind the Kellogg–Briand Pact. He was a habitual maker of crisp, aphoristic distinctions in speeches, which is exactly how a sentence like this one escapes into the wild and starts collecting other people’s names.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented source

Nicholas Murray Butler, Charter Day address, University of California, Berkeley, March 1931; reprinted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 29 March 1931. Earliest attestation and chronology documented by Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: There Are Three Types of People…,” 5 July 2018, and by Barry Popik, The Big Apple.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘There are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened’?” Last verified 22 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/there-are-three-types-of-people-those-who-make-things/